


say anything

by froginatinyhat



Category: The Aurora Cycle - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Aurora Cycle, Aurora burning, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Sharing a Bed, The Echo, aurora rising, better if you've read aurora burning, light spoilers, we love Kaliis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25997914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froginatinyhat/pseuds/froginatinyhat
Summary: Auri and Kal share childhood stories, and Kal has Thoughts About Things.
Relationships: Kaliis Gilwraeth/Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	say anything

**Author's Note:**

> I need a thesaurus and possibly Jesus, but thankfully neither for this fic!  
> Plz validate me with some sweet kudos and comments, many thanks.

“Wait, did Saedii actually do that? That seems way too cute for her!” Aurora laughs, her head tilted as she looks up at me.  
“Did that sound like the type of story I would be able to make up?” I smile back at her, shifting ever so slightly closer.  
Aurora tucks herself against my side, laying her hand across my chest. I close my eyes as it makes its way into my hair, stroking through the loose silver strands. It is entirely different to how she yanked them out of their braids earlier, tangling her hands into it to create the mess that she is fixing now.  
She glows in the light of the stars above us, her eyes glittering brighter than any of them. Lying on her side, the curves of her body exaggerated as I gently run my hand over them. The silk of the sheets are cool in comparison to the gentle warmth of her almond skin.   
“Well, no. I just can’t picture Saedii taking every toy she could find and arranging them into a little army around your bed.”  
“I think they would be to attack than protect me these days…”  
“Can you imagine,” Aurora snorts, “Instead of that horrible agonizer… a projectile teddy bear.”  
“I grew up with Saedii, so I can tell you firsthand to never underestimate the amount of damage capable of being created with a thrown toy.”   
My face stays dead serious for a total of five seconds before I grin, dissolving into laughter with Aurora.  
I think that it is funny thanks to the truth of it. How many times did we fight like that?  
Aurora listens to me speak of building little fortresses out of blankets to reenact ancient wars, converting the room into our own private battlefield. The soft toys Mother allowed us during those times flying through the air, knocking over decorations; even furniture. Chasing each other down hallways, stealing the others things, and simply enjoying causing a ruckus.  
_The fun always came to an end when Father returned home…_  
I suppose my face must say what my words do not.  
“You okay?” Aurora gently asks me, bringing her face over mine to look into my eyes.  
I wonder how much of the bittersweet memories she can see in them.  
“I am perfect,” I whisper, bringing my mouth to hers.  
I receive stories from her own childhood in return for my own.  
She talks about meeting Callie for the first time, how excited she was to have a little sister. Even if said little sister was a bit boring at first.   
My fingertips run over a minuscule, smooth scar on her shin as she tells me of falling out of a tree when she was eight. It was one of the few times she went to the hospital, but it did nothing to dissuade her love of climbing.  
We talk about how much we both wanted pets. Aurora wanted to own a puppy with her sister. I wanted to own a drakkan with mine. They could not have one due to their families nomadic lifestyle. I could not have one because “it is entirely unfeasible to have a violent reptile that would grow twenty metres long in the house.”  
“I should have argued that we could keep it in the garden…” I joke, thinking of Saedii and I petitioning our parents for a drakkan.  
“You jealous?” Aurora smirks.  
“Of what?”  
“That Saedii got one, and you didn’t?”  
“I think the price she paid for it is a _little_ steep.”  
I compare the games she would play with her friends to my own. Chasing and catching, hiding and seeking, racing and winning. They are not so different, although mine were a little more “to the point of collapse” than hers.  
I learn about how her father would tell her traditional stories before bed, lulling her to sleep. I even get to hear a few brief ones that she committed to her memory.  
My own mother would share ancient mythologies with Saedii and I, before she became occupied by Father. There are older religions from before we discovered The Void, before the Fold. Pantheons of angry gods and benevolent goddesses, of jealous queens and just kings. We listened together, tucked up against Mothers sides with her soothing tone lulling asleep.  
Running my hands over her back, I wonder out of nowhere if we could ever tell such stories to children of our own.   
My thoughts spiral from there, continuing even after my Be’shmai falls asleep.  
It is completely fanciful. The future of the entire universe is uncertain, though I have complete faith in her. I do not know how things will change, what type of world we will find ourselves in.  
Even if all is right, it is rare and risky for people of different species to reproduce for obvious reasons. It is completely unknown if Terrans and Syldrathi are even capable of procreation thanks to the war.   
Aurora and I are so young ourselves; seventeen and nineteen. It would be years before we would be ready to raise a family.  
_A family nothing like my own, I hope._  
Still, I imagine. Aurora with a baby in her arms as she sings and rocks them to sleep. Hearing them say their first words, catching them as they take their first steps. Listening to a toddler babble their way through sentences, stumbling over their squeaky words. Sending a miniature being off to school, excited in the way only found in youth. Teaching them things about life, watching them learn on their own, comforting them when the lesson is harsh.  
These are not thoughts I should entertain, yet they are what I fall asleep thinking off.


End file.
